In Iraqi mountains, PKK fighters pledge resistance

NEAR IRAQ/TURKEY BORDER (Reuters) - High in the mountains near Iraq's border with Turkey, separatist guerrillas fighting for a Kurdish homeland trudge along a dusty path near groves of walnut trees.

Dressed in traditional green Kurdish tunics and baggy trousers with a waist sash, they sport the trademarks of rebels worldwide -- AK-47 assault rifles over their shoulders and mobile phones in hand.

The Turkish military is threatening to cross the border into the northern region of Kurdistan to root the separatists from the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) out of their mountain hideouts.

Over the past week, Turkish forces have shelled and bombed suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq and there is a frantic diplomatic effort to prevent a full-scale incursion that Washington fears could plunge the region into chaos.

There are few signs of the PKK's presence in the winding valley, flanked by sheer cliffs studded with caves and scrub.

But you can spot makeshift wood shelters under trees near a bubbling stream, signs of recent fires and white sacks stacked neatly under a rock, guarding a tiny entrance to a bunker.

The PKK fighters in the valley, some men, some women, say they don't fear the might of the Turkish army and they pledge to fight until they obtain a Kurdish homeland.

"If they come over the Iraqi border we will survive. These mountains are Kurdish mountains and they don't know the terrain," said one PKK fighter.

"As a people, we have been living in this area for 2,000 years," said the 35-year-old man, originally from Turkey. "If there are attacks, we will resist."

Kurds are spread across four countries in this crucible of tension, in Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. After years of suppression under former president Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Kurds have finally achieved some autonomy.

"All of the four governments, Turkey, Syria, the old Iraq and Iran, are against the Kurds and they won't give us our rights," said the fighter, standing next to three other PKK followers under the beating sun.

BLACKLISTED

If the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq were to break away and become a separate nation, it would be a first step but not enough to end their struggle, PKK fighters say.

"No, the revolution will not stop if we get part of Iraq. It will continue until all of Kurdistan is free. But a political solution would be better. The Kurdish people don't like fighting and killing," said the PKK member.

He said he joined the PKK after witnessing the destruction of Kurdish villages in southeastern Turkey, where relatives and neighbors were arrested and tortured.

Washington and other countries call the PKK a terrorist organization and support efforts to stamp it out. Iraq has pledged to shut down PKK offices in the north of the country as it strives to prevent a Turkish incursion.

The PKK has stepped up attacks on the Turkish army this year and killed some 40 soldiers in the past month. It is holding eight seized after an attack on Sunday and the Turkish government is under increasing popular pressure to strike.

The separatists say being blacklisted as terrorists by the international community is just political expediency on the part of major nations.

"It's a political and economic issue because these countries, the UK, the European Union, they want to have good relations with Turkey," the fighter said.

"The Iraqi Kurds were called terrorists before. They fought from the mountains for 50 years against the Iraqi regime, but that has all changed now.

"Go to Arbil it's the safest place in Iraq," he said, referring to a city in Kurdistan.

(Additional reporting by Mahdy Talat and Abdulrahman Abdulrahman)